Origen's Life

St. Didymus the Blind, the head of the School of Alexandria in the
latter half of the fourth century, described Origen as "the greatest teacher in
the Church after the Apostles."

J. Quasten states, "The School of Alexandria reached its greatest
importance under St. Clements successor, Origen, the outstanding teacher and scholar
of the early church,...a man of encyclopedic learning, and one of the most original
thinkers the world has ever seen."

G.L. Prestige says, "He (Origen) was one of the greatest
teachers ever known in Christendom... He was the founder of biblical science, and,
though not absolutely the first great biblical commentator, he first developed the
principles of exposition to be followed and applied the technique of methodical
explanation on the widest possible scale. He inaugurated the systematic treatment of
theology, by writing a book about God, the world, and religion in their several relations.
He finally completed and established the principle that Christianity is an intelligent
religion, by bringing the strength and vigor of Greek philosophical insight to clarify the
Hebrew religious institution and Christian spiritual history."

Jean Daniélou says, "Origen and St. Augustine were the two
greatest geniuses of the early church. Origens writings can be said to mark a
decisive period in all fields of Christian thought. His research into the history of the
different versions of the Scriptures and his commentaries on the literal and spiritual
senses of the Old and New Testaments make him the founder of the scientific study of the
Bible. He worked out the first of the great theological syntheses and was the first to try
and give a methodical explanation of the mysteries of Christianity. He was the first, too,
to describe the route followed by the soul on her way back to God. He is thus the
founder of the theology of spiritual life, and it may be questioned whether he is not
to some extent the ancestor of the great monastic movement of the fourth century."

Hans Urs Von Balthasar says, "In the Eastern Church his mysticism
of ascent to God remained immensely powerful through medieval and modern times, more
powerful than the mysticism of "dazzling darkness" of the Pseudo-Areopagite
(whose dominant influence was in the West). In the Western Church both Jerome and Ambrose
unhesitatingly copied his work and thus bequeathed it to posterity... His work is aglow
with the fire of a Christian creativity that in the greatest of his successors burned
merely with a borrowed flame."

Robert Payne says, "This eunuch was the first great doctor, the
founder of scientific Biblical scholarship. He would use reason and make reason itself the
servant of Christ. He would batter down the walls of Heaven by the main force of logic
alone... And though he was never officially granted the title of Doctor of the Church, he
was the greatest doctor of them all."

B.F. Westcott says that though countless doctors, priests, and
confessors proceed from his school, he was himself accused of heresy and convicted; though
he was the friend and teacher of saints, his salvation was questioned and denied.

G.W. Barkley says, "There can be no doubt that one of the most
influential of the early church fathers was Origen of Alexandria."

The interpretation of Origen was a problem to earlier ages. Scholarius,
the first patriarch of Constantinople under the Turks, made his own synthesis. The western
writers say, "Where Origen was good, no one is better, where he was bad, no one is
worse."

The Coptic Church was compelled to excommunicate him because of some
false ideas that he believed in, like the salvation of the devil, and the universal
salvation of all the human race, besides his acceptance of priesthood from others than his
bishop and after making himself eunuch. Other churches excommunicated him, his followers,
and their writings after his death in the Council of Constantinople in 553 A.D.

Eric Osborn states that the middle third of this century saw some very
good books on Origen. He mentions the work of Daniélou saying,

The work of Daniélou was comprehensive by conviction and foreshadowed
an end to disagreement. Origen was not either a philosopher or an exegete or a systematic,
or a sacramentalist, or a mystic; he was all of them at once. The mistake which his
interpreters had made was to isolate one element of his "vision totale du monde".
He was a man of the church, although the church formed no part of his theology. For him,
Christianity was not first a doctrine but a divine force, active in history through its
martyrs, saints and community. While Celsus regarded the vision of God as accessible but
difficult, Origen thought it was inaccessible and easy. His hermeneutic, like everything
else was complex, and the different strands had to be distinguished.

PRINCIPAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION ABOUT ORIGEN

1. The farewell speech made by St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, the apostle of
Cappadocia and Pontus, indicates and reveals their relationship with Origen and his
influence on them. This speech has come down to us entire in its original language, Greek.
While the whole document tells us of the relation of Origen with his students and the
moving affection felt for him by St. Gregory, the second part of it describes precisely
the curriculum followed by the master.

2. The "Church History" (Eccl. Hist.), book 6, of
Eusebius, who succeeded him at the school at Caesarea. He says, "The little I have to
say about him I will put together from letters and from information supplied by those of
his friends who are still alive." His main source of information was Origen's
voluminous correspondence, which he gathered into volumes and kept in the library at
Caesarea.

3. Pamphilus, a predecessor of Eusebius of Caesarea started to collect
material relating to Origen and at the same time to put his library in order. He lived in
Caesarea shortly after the death of Origen, but it is not known whether he had known
Origen personally or not. Of the Apology for Origen that Pamphilus had composed in
prison with the help of Eusebius we only have Book I in a Latin translation of Rufinus of
Aquileia: the preface of this book, addressed by Pamphilus to the Christians who were
condemned to labor in the mines of Palestine, contains precious hints on what Origen meant
and how he should be understood.

Besides these sources we are informed about the contents of the rest of
the work in chapter 118 of the Bibliotheca of Photius. Other scattered items are
reproduced by various authors, St. Jerome, the historian Socrates, Photius and others:
many seem to come from the missing volumes of Pamphilus' Apology for Origen or from
lost works of Eusebius, such as his Life of Pamphilus.

ORIGENS BOYHOOD

Origen, a true son of Egypt, was born probably in Alexandria, in or
about 185 A.D His name means "Son of Horus, the god of Light," an Egyptian god,
son of Isis and Osiris, symbolizing the rising sun. In the first centuries, those born of
Christian parents sometimes bore names derived from pagan deities.

It is not unlikely that Origen was baptized while he was an infant, for
he himself is one of the main supporters of infant baptism in that period.

Eusebius says that everything about Origen, even the things he did in
the cradle, deserves to be remembered. He saw the six-year-old Origen as though he were in
his maturity, applying himself to the pursuit of the spiritual sense of the Scriptures. He
received his Bible training from his father, and St. Clement of Alexandria, a free spirit
if ever there was one, taught him theology. His father Leonides was very careful to bring
him up in the knowledge of the sacred Scriptures, and the child displayed a precocious
curiosity in this respect. He received from his father, a devout Christian who became a
martyr, a double education, Hellenic and Biblical. His father was the owner of a library
of rare manuscripts, devoted to scholarship. Origen read widely in his father's library,
and asked endless questions. So many questions that he had to be restrained and publicly
rebuked. He was never satisfied with easy answers.

"Everyday he would set him to learn a passage (from the Bible) by
heart ... The child was not content with the straight-forward, obvious meaning of the
Scriptures, he wanted something more, and even at that time would go in pursuit of the
underlying sense. He always embarrassed his father by the questions he asked."

Eusebius, the historian, tells us that Leonides, seeing his sons
fondness of the Word of God during his boyhood, was accustomed to go up to Origens
bed while he was asleep, uncover his chest and reverently kiss it as a dwelling-place of
the Holy Spirit. He thought of himself as blessed in being the father of such a boy.
According to the Coptic Church, the kiss sometimes is a ritual gesture denoting
veneration. That is why the priest kisses the altar and the Gospel book.

LEONIDES MARTYRDOM

Besides being fed on the Holy Scriptures, Origen was exposed to the
influence of martyrdom. In the tenth year of Septimius Severus (202 A.D) a persecution
against Christians started, which was to last for several years in Egypt under a
succession of prefects. It had a special severity upon the Egyptian Church. The fires of
persecution rose to a great height and thousands of Christians received crowns of
martyrdom. It was during this persecution that St. Perpetua and St. Felicity were martyred
in Africa. Leonides was arrested and thrown into prison. Origen, who had not then
completed his seventeenth year ardently desired to attain the martyrs crown with his
father. He was only prevented from achieving this desire by his mother who, at a critical
moment, hid all his clothes, and so laid upon him the necessity of remaining at home, to
look after his six brothers. He strongly urged his father to remain firm by writing to
him, "Do not dream of changing your mind for our sake... "

As a child, he had wished to be a martyr like his father; thirty
years later by his eloquent Exhortation to Martyrdom he gave encouragement to his
friends imprisoned and tortured by Maximin. Finally under Decius he had the proud
privilege of suffering for Christ, and shortly after this glorious confession he died.

TEACHER OF LITERATURE

Leonides was beheaded and his goods were confiscated. Origen, then
seventeen years old, remained with his mother and his six younger brothers. His refuge was
with a noble lady of Alexandria, who helped him for a time. But he could not be
comfortable there, since a heretic teacher, called "Paul of Antioch," had so
captured this simple lady by his eloquence that she had harbored him as her philosopher
and adopted son, and gave him permission to propagate his heresy by means of lectures
delivered in her house.

Origen, as a churchman and an orthodox believer felt uncomfortable,
left the house and maintained himself and his family by teaching secular literature and
grammar.

The youthful Origen was unusual. He was a brilliant scholar. His
education had progressed sufficiently by the time of his fathers death so that he
could support the family by teaching. Through his teachings to pagans, Origens faith
found expression as often as he had occasion to refer to the theological position of pagan
writers. As a result, some pagans applied to him for instruction in Christianity. Among
others were two brothers, Plutarch and Heraclas, of whom the former was martyred and the
latter was yet to hold the bishopric of Alexandria.

ORIGEN AND THE SCHOOL OF ALEXANDRIA

Origen was about fourteen when he first attended the school presided
over by Clement, and he remained Clement's pupil to the end, showing the influence of the
master though he was to use Clement's weapons with incomparably greater skill. He was a
good student.

J. Lebreton says,

On the day following the death of Clement of Alexandria, Alexander of
Jerusalem wrote thus to Origen: "We knew those blessed fathers who preceded us and
with whom we ourselves shall soon be: Pantaenus, the truly blessed master, and also the
venerable Clement who became my own master and assisted me and possibly others. Through
these I came to know you, altogether excelling, my master and my brother."

The School of Alexandria which had been dispersed by the persecutions
and the departure of St. Clement left it without a teacher. St. Demetrius, Pope of
Alexandria, recognized his ability, appointed Origen as the head of the school, when he
was eighteen years old, due to his Christian zeal to preach and catechize. The post was an
honorable one, but it was not without its dangers, for the persecution begun by the edicts
of Severus (202) was still raging, threatening especially the converts and their masters.

Origen, immediately gave up all other activities and sold his beloved
manuscripts that he possessed (perhaps the library of Leonides spared by the exchequer),
and devoted himself exclusively to his new duties as a catchiest. Probably by that time
his brothers had grown up and taken over the support of the family, setting him free for
the service of the Church. Origen was to receive from the purchaser an income of four
obols a day which would have to suffice for his sustenance. Six obols were the equivalent
of one denarius, which represented a very low daily wage. This gesture of reselling his
library marks a complete renunciation of secular studies. But he was not slow to realize
that secular knowledge was of great value in explaining the Scriptures and for his
missionary work, and he would soon return to what he had intended to abandon.

According to Charles Bigg, "He sold the manuscripts of the Greek
classics, which he had written out with loving care, for a trifling pension, in order that
he might be able to teach without a fee."

His catechetical instruction attracted many, and Origen grew in his
vocation as a Christian teacher.

About the year 215, St. Alexander of Jerusalem regarded Origen, his
master and friend, the successor to the venerable deans of the Alexandrian School,
Pantaenus and Clement, though - in his eyes - even greater than these. On the day
following the death of St. Clement, Alexander wrote to Origen: "We knew those blessed
fathers who proceeded us and with whom we ourselves shall soon be: Pantaenus the truly
blessed master, and also the venerable Clement, who became my own master and assisted me
and possibly others. Through these I came to know you, although excelling, my
brother."

Here, I would like to refer to Origens role in the development of
the School of Alexandria:

1 - Origen devoted himself with the utmost ardor not only in studying
and teaching the Holy Scripture, but also giving his life as an example of evangelical
life. His disciple St. Gregory the Wonder-maker says that "he stimulated us by the
deeds he did more than by the doctrines he taught."

Eusebius gives a vivid account of the asceticism practiced by Origen.
He lived with extreme simplicity, owning only one coat, walking barefoot, sleeping on the
floor, eating only what was necessary to support life; and after a long days work,
sitting up half the night studying the Scriptures. Eusebius tells us that, "he taught
as he lived, and lived as he taught; and it was especially for this reason that with the
co-operation of the divine power, he brought so many to share his zeal." He adds,
"he persevered in the most philosophical manner of life, at one time disciplining
himself by fasting, at another measuring out the time for sleep, which he was careful to
take, never on a couch, but on the floor, and indicated how the Gospel ought to be kept
which exhorts us not to provide two coats nor to use shoes, nor indeed, to be worn out
with thoughts about the future."

He tried to lead his disciples and his hearers along the same way of
asceticism and mortification which he imposed upon himself from his youth. To asceticism
we must join prayers, with the aim of freeing the soul and enabling it to be united with
God. That is what a Christian seeks by observing virginity, by drawing away from the world
while living in the world, sacrificing as much as possible good fortune, and despising
human glory.

As St. Gregory the Wonder-worker says, he "strove to be like his
own description of the man leading the good life; he provided a model, I mean, for those
in search of wisdom.

Origen was immensely successful. Several of his pupils were themselves
martyred, another, many years later, became bishop of Alexandria. He taught as much by his
example as by his eloquence. He undertook to visit and console the confessors in prison,
attended them to the scaffold and gave them their last kiss of peace. The mob tried to
stone him. His lodgings were picketed by soldiers, though whether to arrest him or to
extend the protection of a government more lenient than the populace towards so
distinguished a figure, is not clear.

2 - At the beginning, Origens aim was concentrated on preparing
the catechumens to receive baptism, not only by teaching them the Christian faith but also
by giving them instructions concerning the practical aspects of Christian life.

"If you want to receive Baptism," he says, "you
must first learn about Gods Word, cut away the roots of your vices, correct your
barbarous wild lives and practice meekness and humility. Then you will be fit to receive
the grace of the Holy Spirit."

He was affectionate and, says Gregory, bewitching. He kindled in the
hearts of his pupils a burning love, "directed at once towards the divine Word, the
most lovable object of all, who attracts all irresistibly to Himself by His unspeakable
beauty, and also towards himself, the friend and advocate" of Christ.

3 - Origens task was not to prepare those people flocking in
increasing numbers to sit at his feet, to be baptized, but rather to be martyred. His
School was a preparation for martyrdom. Those who were close to him knew that they were
running the risk of martyrdom. One pagan, Plutarch, converted by Origen was martyred; he
was encouraged to the end by his master. Others still in the catechumenate or else
neophytes followed him. Eusebius mentions Severus, Heraclides, Hero, another Serenus, and
two women, Herais and Potamizena, whose martyrdom was especially glorious.
Michael Green says, "But it (School of Alexandria) was an evangelistic agency as well
as a didactic one. Some of the Gentiles came to him to hear the word of God,
and became strong, courageous Christians who sealed their testimony with their blood, men
like Plutarch, Severus, Heron and Heraclides, as well as women like Herais: all were
martyred. The preaching and teaching went together, and there was much practical work as
well, the visiting of prisoners, the encouragement of those condemned to death for their
faith, as well as working for a living and the exercise of great abstinence in food,
drink, sleep, money and clothing."

Eusebius describes the part Origen played at the time of persecution.
"He had a great name with the faithful," he says, "due to the way he always
welcomed the holy martyrs and was so attentive to them, whether he knew them or not. He
would go to them in prison and stay by them when they were tried and even when they were
being led to death... often, when he went up to the martyrs unconcernedly and saluted them
with a kiss regardless of the consequences, the pagan crowd standing by became very angry
and would have rushed upon him and very nearly made an end of him."

These heroic times left an indelible trace upon Origens memory,
and he recalled them towards the end of the long period of peace which preceded the Decian
persecution:

That was a time when people were really faithful, when martyrdom was
the penalty even for entrance into the church, when, from the cemeteries whither we had
accompanied the bodies of the martyrs, we entered immediately our meeting places, when the
whole Church stood unshakable, when catechumens were catechized in the midst of the
martyrdom and deaths of Christians who confessed their faith right to the end, and when
these catechumens, overcoming these trials, adhered fearlessly to the living God. Then it
was that we remember seeing astonishing and marvelous wonders. Doubtless the faithful were
then few in number, but they were truly faithful, following the straight and narrow path
which leads to life.

4 - As his crowd of disciples flocked to him from morning to night,
Origen realized that he had to divide them into two classes, so he chose his disciple
Heraclas, an excellent speaker, to give the beginners the preparatory subject of Christian
doctrines, while he devoted himself to instructing the advanced students in philosophy,
theology and especially the Holy Scriptures.

5 - Origen gained a great number of pupils from the pagan School of
philosophy. As Lebreton says that at the period 218-230 A.D Origen was particularly
brilliant and fruitful. He was at the height of his powers; he enjoyed the confidence of
Pope Demetrius, and every day saw still more students attending his lectures. These
disciples came from everywhere, from the Hellenic philosophies and from the Gnostic sects;
they sought from Origen the interpretation of the Scriptures and a knowledge of God. To
satisfy all their desires the master felt the need of a deeper study of the Bible and of
divinity. Accordingly he took up the study of Hellenic philosophy, as he explains in a
fragment of a letter quoted by Eusebius: "When I devoted myself to speaking, the
fame of our worth spread abroad, and there came to me heretics and those formed in Greek
studies and especially philosophers; it seemed good to me that I should examine thoroughly
the doctrines of the heretics, and what philosophers profess to say concerning truth."

He felt that he was in need of deeper philosophical training, and this
could be found in the lectures of Ammonius Saccas, a well-known Alexandrian philosopher
(174-242 A.D), taught Platonism, and from him Plotonus (205-270 A.D), learned
Neoplatonism. J. Quasten says,

The period of his life as an educator can be divided into two parts:
the first, as head of the school at Alexandria, extending from 203 to 23I A.D, was one of
increasing success. The second part of his life was spent in Caesarea of Palestine from
231 A.D until his death. During the first period, he gained pupils even from heretical
circles and from the pagan schools of philosophy....This busy schedule did not prevent him
from attending the lectures of Ammonius Saccas, the famous founder of Neoplatonism. His
influence can be seen in Origens cosmology and psychology and in his method.

Origen was essentially a man of the student type. But unlike St.
Clement, he was not a philosopher who had been converted to Christianity, nor was his
sympathy with philosophy. Perhaps because he was afraid of the beauty of philosophical
forms or expressions as a dangerous snare that might entrap or distant him. Perhaps it was
only that he had no time for such trifles. Origen was a true missionary who realized that
he must study philosophy just to be able to expound Christianity to the leading minds of
his day and to answer their difficulties and stress the factors in Christianity likely to
appeal to them most.

In a letter written in defense of his position as a student of Greek
philosophy he says: "when I had devoted myself entirely to the Scriptures, I was
sometimes approached by heretics and people who had studied the Greek sciences and
philosophy in particular, I deemed it advisable to investigate both the doctoral views of
the heretics and what the philosophers claimed to know of the truth. In this I was
imitating Pantaenus who, before my time, had acquired no small store of such knowledge and
had benefited many people by it."

It is worthy to note that not all the days of his long life were spent
in scholarship, he was a man who was always violently liked or disliked. The story is told
that the mob of Alexandria once seized him, clothed him in the dress of a priest of
Serapis, gave him the tonsure and placed him on the steps of the great temple, ordering
him to perform the office of a priest of Serapis by distributing palm branches to the
worshipers. Origen did as he was ordered, and as he placed the palms in the hands of the
people and blessed them, he cried out: "Come and receive the palms, not of idols, but
of Jesus Christ!''

ORIGEN LEARNED THE HEBREW LANGUAGE

After the sack of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and its destruction during the
following years, Jewish criticism against Christianity was increasingly on the defensive,
while Christian doctrine felt able to go its own way, without engaging the rabbis in a
continuing dialogue. Origen seems to have been one of the few church fathers to
participate in such a dialogue. Origen may also have been the first church father to study
Hebrew. "As everyone knows," St. Jerome says, "he was so devoted to the
Scriptures that he even learned Hebrew, in opposition to the spirit of his time and of his
people." According to Eusebius, "he learned it thoroughly." I think he
learned it at first out of his deep love of the Scriptures, to discover the accurate
meaning of its Hebrew text, and secondly for defending Christianity against the Jews. His
knowledge of the language was never perfect, but it enabled him to get at the original
text.

J.W. Trigg says, "One reason Origen probably wished to learn
Hebrew was to become more proficient at finding the roots of Hebrew names. Origen shared
the belief, common in his time, that the root meaning of a word remained somehow
associated with it even when the word itself had come to mean something else entirely and
that knowledge of this original meaning could be a very useful clue to the meaning of the
text."

ORIGENS SELF-MUTILATION

The presence of women at his lectures, while he was still a young man,
and the consequent possibility of scandal suggested to him a literal acting on the words
of the Gospel "there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of
heavens sake" Matt. 19:12. Origen felt obliged to take literally a word which
the tradition of the Church did not understand in that way, so in a way lining up, in his
youth, with those literalists whom he contested so harshly for all the rest of his life.
It is indeed intriguing to find the one who is held to be the prince of allegory taking
literally a verse which earlier tradition had usually understood allegorically.

Perhaps he regarded emasculation as simply one more of the
mortifications he imposed on the body. He said later that "those who obey the
teachings of the Savior are martyrs in every act whereby they crucify the flesh; with its
passions and desires." If mortification was required, the emasculation was only
an extreme form of mortification, to be compared with fasting...In
his enthusiasm for the perfect life, he unwisely took this action to prevent all
suspicion, and at the same time he thought that he was carrying out a counsel of the Lord.

He tried to hide what he had done, but the secret was soon known and
brought to the attention of Pope Demetrius, who forgave him willingly, but later used it
against him when he was ordained a presbyter.

This act of self-mutilation, condemned by the civil law, was already
disapproved of by the Church, and was later formally condemned. Origen himself wrote later
when explaining this text in Matthew: "If there are other passages, not only in
the Old but also in the New Testament, to which we ought to apply the words: "The
letter kills, but the spirit gives life," we must allow that they apply especially to
this particular text." Origen says that "true purity does not consist in
doing violence to the body, but in mortifying the senses for the Kingdom of God."

ORIGENS JOURNEYS

Origens reputation spread not only in Alexandria but throughout
the whole Church.

1 - About the year 212 A.D Origen went to Rome, during the pontificate
of Zephyrinus, and in his presence St. Hippolytus gave a discourse in honor of the Savior.

2 - Shortly before the year 215, we find him in Arabia, where he has
gone in order to instruct the Roman Governor at the latters own request. "A
soldier brought letters to Demetrius, Bishop of Alexandria, and to the prefect of Egypt in
which the governor of Arabia requested them to send Origen to him as soon as possible, as
he wished to discuss doctrines with him."

He was also called to Arabia several times for discussions with its
bishop. Eusebius mentions two of those debates, in the year 244 A.D an Arabian synod was
convened to discuss the Christological views of Beryllus, Bishop of Bostra. The synod,
which was largely attended, condemned Beryllus, because of his absolute monarchianism (one
person as Godhead), and had vainly tried to bring him round to the Orthodox position.
Origen hurried to Arabia and succeeded in convincing Beryllus, who seemed even to have
written a letter of thanks to Origen.

This link with Arabia is a continuation of Pantaenus.

3 - Around the year 216 A.D, the emperor Caracalla had arrived in
Alexandria and had been the butt of gibes on the part of the student population which
greeted him as 'Geticus,' an ironical title of honor because he had assassinated his
brother Geta. The Emperor looted the city of Alexandria, closed the schools, persecuted
the teachers and massacred them. Origen decided to leave Alexandria in secret and withdrew
for the first time to Caesarea of Palestine. There, he was welcomed by his old friend
Alexander, Bishop of Aelia, that is of Jerusalem, and subsequently by Theoctistus, Bishop
of Caesarea (in Palestine). Not wishing to miss the chance afforded them by the presence
of so distinguished a biblical scholar, they invited him to expound the Scriptures in the
Christian assemblies before them, although he was still a layman. Back in Alexandria, Pope
Demetrius was very angry for, according to the Alexandrian Church custom, laymen should
not deliver discourse in the presence of the bishops. The Pope made a protest to the
Palestinian bishops, saying that "it has never been heard of and it never happens now
that laymen preach homilies in the presence of bishops." Bishops Theoctistus and
Alexander retorted in a letter which is possibly later and contemporary with the great
crisis of 231-233 A.D - saying that this statement was manifestly incorrect. They quoted
cases showing that "where there are men capable of doing good to the brethren, they
are invited by the holy bishops to address the people." The Pope ordered the
immediate return of Origen to Alexandria, and the latter loyally obeyed the summons, and
everything seemed to settle down as it had been before. This incident was a prelude to the
conflict which was to break out some fifteen years later.

Henri Crouzel states that another question can be asked about this
first sojourn of Origen's at Caesarea of Palestine. In his Historia Lausiaca, Palladius
reports the following concerning a virgin called Juliana:

It is also said that there was at Caesarea of Cappadocia a virgin named
Juliana, of great wisdom and faith. She took in the writer Origen when he fled from the
rising of the Greeks and hid him for three years, providing him with rest at her own
expense and caring for him herself. All that I found, mentioned in Origen's own
handwriting in a very old book written in verses. These were his very words: I found
this book at the house of the virgin Juliana at Caesarea when I was hiding there. She said
she had got it from Symmachus himself, the Jewish commentator.

Writers usually understand by this 'rising of the Greeks' the
persecution of Maximin the Thracian in 235 and accordingly suppose that at that time
Origen had to leave Caesarea of Palestine where he had settled and hide at Caesarea of
Cappadocia. Eusebius, who had also read the same note on the manuscript which was to be
found in his day in the library at Caesarea in Palestine, reports that the commentaries of
the Ebionite Symmachus Ebionism was a Judaeo-Christian heresy - were to be found there and
that Origen "indicates that he had received these works with other interpretations of
the Scriptures by Symmachus from a certain Juliana, who, he says, had inherited these
books from Symmachus himself." This passage follows the chapter in which Eusebius
explains how Origen composed the Hexapla: Symmachus was the author of one of the
four Greek versions which were collated in it. These chapters relate to the Alexandrian
period of Origen's life.

Crouzel also says, "We also wonder whether it is not right to see
in the 'rising of the Greeks', not Maximin's persecution, but the troubles in Alexandria
when Caracalla visited the city and to suppose that Palladius confused the two Caesareas,
mentioning the Cappadocian one when it should have been the Palestinian. The fact is that
the note in Origen's handwriting which he read and which is the source of his information
does not say which Caesarea is meant and as the manuscript which contained it was found
among the books that Origin left to the library of Caesarea in Palestine, it would seem
more likely that the latter is meant. However, it is possible that Palladius knew from
some other source that Juliana lived in Caesarea of Cappadocia."

4 - At the beginning of the reign of Alexander Severus (222-235 A.D),
the Emperors mother, Julia Mammaea, the last of those Syrian princesses to whom the
Severan dynasty owed much of its brilliance, summoned Origen to come to Antioch in order
that she might consult him on many questions. She thought it very important to be favored
with the sight of this man and to sample his understanding of divine matters which
everyone was admiring.

According to Eusebius, Origen abode for some time at the royal place
and after hearing powerful testimony to the glory of the Lord and the worth of divine
instruction "hastened back to his School."

Origen mentions in his Letter to friends in Alexandria a stay in
Antioch, where he had to refute the calumny of a heretic whom he had already confronted in
Ephesus.

5 - Origens next journey was into Greece, and involved two years
absence from Alexandria. He went in response of Achia, apparently to act the part of
peace-maker, and was bearer of written credentials from his Bishop. Origen chose the
longest way round: from Alexandria to Athens going through Caesarea of Palestine which was
not the most direct way, probably to visit his Palestinian friends, Bishops Theoctistus
and Alexander. There he was ordained a priest, by the Bishop of this country. To the two
bishops it seemed unfitting that a spiritual counselor of high authorities like Origen
should be no more than a layman. Moreover, they desired to avoid all risk of further
rebukes from Pope Demetrius by licensing Origen to preach in their presence. Possibly they
wanted to give him greater prestige for the mission he was undertaking to Greece.

Origen at this time was not thinking of settling in Caesarea; once his
mission to Greece had been accomplished, he would go back to Alexandria and again direct
his school.

Pope Demetrius counted this ordination much worse offense than the
former one, considering it as invalid, for two reasons:

a - Origen had received priesthood from another bishop without
permission from his own bishop.

b - Origens self-mutilation was against his ordination. Until
today no such person (who practices self-mutilation) can be ordained.

ORIGENS CONDEMNATION

Pope Demetrius called a council of bishops and priests who refused to
abide by the decision, that Origin must leave Alexandria, but this did not content bishop
Demetrius. He called another council of bishops only (in the year 232), and deprived him
of the priesthood as the ordination was invalid and he became unfit for catechizing.
Beside the above-mentioned accusations, they considered that there were some errors in his
teachings such as:

1 - He believed souls were created before the bodies, and they are
bound to bodies as a punishment of previous sins they had committed. The world is for them
only a place of purification.

2 - The soul of Christ had a previous existence before the Incarnation
and it was united with divinity.

3 - All creation, even Satan aqnd demons, will return back to its
origin in God, (eternal punishment has an end).

We will deal with these errors attributed to him in chapter four:
"Origen and Origenism."

Origen was deprived of his priesthood, and St. Jerome says that all the
bishops endorsed the attack on Origen except the Bishops of Palestine, Arabia, Achaia and
Phoenicia. St. Jerome at the peak of his enthusiasm for Origen did not hesitate to write
that, if Rome called a senate against Origen, it was not "on account of innovations
in dogma, or to accuse him of heresy, as many of these mad dogs claim nowadays, but
because they could not stand the splendid effect of his eloquence and scholarship for when
he spoke all were speechless."

Origen sent a letter, probably from Athens, to friends at Alexandria
who presumably had warned him of what Pope Demetrius thought of him. The fragment that
Jerome preserves which comes from an earlier part of Origen's letter contains
disillusioned and bitter remarks about the limited confidence it is possible to have in
the Church leaders: it is wrong to revile them or hate them; one should rather pity them
and pray for them. One should not revile anyone, not even the devil, but leave it to the
Lord to correct them.

With a heavy heart Origen abandoned Alexandria forever and made his
way, accompanied by the faithful Ambrosius and perhaps with a small following of copyists
and stenographers to Caesarea. He obeyed abhorring schism, and with noble Christian
unselfishness counted his expulsion from the place that was dearest to him than any on
earth, as not too great a sacrifice in order to maintain the unity of the Church. For
although he had powerful friends in Alexandria and overseas and might have become the
leader of a great party to fight the bishop - but never did thus! He calmly left
Alexandria, feeling that nobody could deprive him of his beloved church, as he says,
"It sometimes happens that a man who has been turned out is really still inside, and
one who seems to be inside may really be outside."

"The work of correction," Origen says in one of his
letters about Ambrosius, "leaves us no time for supper, or after supper for
exercise and repose. Even at these times we are compelled to debate questions of
interpretation and to amend manuscripts. Even the night cannot be given up altogether to
the needful refreshment of sleep, for our discussions extend far into the evening. I say
nothing about our morning labor. For all earnest students devote this time to study of the
Scriptures and reading".

J. Lebreton says,

Shortly after the condemnation of Origen, Demetrius died. His successor
was the priest Heraclas, whom Origen had appointed as assistant, and who after his
condemnation had taken his place at the head of the Catechetical School. It seems that
Origen tried at this time to return to Alexandria and to take up his teaching once more,
but Heraclas upheld the sentence of Demetrius. In 247 Heraclas died in his turn, and was
succeeded by St. Dionysius. He, however, took no steps to recall to Alexandria the man who
had nevertheless been his own master. But in the time of the Decian persecution, Origen
was to receive, after his painful confession of the Faith, a friendly letter from the
Bishop of Alexandria.

These facts enable us to understand better the significance and the
motives of the sentence of Demetrius: if his two successors, sometime pupils of Origen,
did nothing to recall their master to Alexandria, it must have been because his dismissal
was motivated not merely by the personal jealousy of Demetrius, but also by the
Churchs own interests.

A NEW SCHOOL

The departure of Origen from Alexandria to settle in Caesarea of
Palestine divides his life into two main periods. Henri Crouzel states that, according to
most manuscripts of Eusebius Origen's departure from Alexandria to settle in Caesarea of
Palestine took place in the tenth year of the reign of Alexander Severus, say 231: one
manuscript only gives the twelfth year, say 233. Eusebius subsequently points out that
shortly after the departure of Origen, Demetrius, the bishop of Alexandria, died, after
holding his office for fully forty-three years. Earlier he had noted the accession of
Demetrius in the tenth year of Commodus, that is in 190. So Alexander would have died in
233 and that date makes it more likely that Origen settled in Caesarea in 233 than in 231.

Pastoral concerns appear and grow stronger during the second half of
his life, for his priesthood and his preaching brought him into contact not only with the
intellectuals with whom he still consorted but also with the generality of the Christian
population.

In the preamble to volume six of the Commentary on John, the
first book that he composed at Caesarea as soon as he could start work again, Origen, who
as a rule never speaks of himself, allows the bitterness caused by the recent events at
Alexandria to show.

J. Lebreton says,

The condemnations pronounced by men who had been most closely connected
with Origen - Demetrius, who thirty years before had appointed him head of the
Catechetical School, and Heraclas, who had been his disciple and his collaborator -
together with the exile which removed him from the Church in which his father had died a
martyrs death and in which he himself had taught for thirty years, and the
pronouncements against him emanating from the whole world, were to Origen himself a
terrible blow. Yet he says little about them in his works, and when he does so it is with
moderation. The most explicit passage is found in the Preface of the Sixth Tome of
St. John:

In spite of the storm stirred up against us at Alexandria, we had
completed the fifth tome, for Jesus commanded the winds and the waves. We had already
begun the sixth when we were torn from the land of Egypt, saved by the hand of God the
deliverer, who had formerly withdrawn his people from thence. Since that time the enemy
has redoubled his violence, publishing his new letters, truly hostile to the Gospel, and
letting loose upon us all the evil winds of Egypt. Hence reason counseled us to remain
ready for combat, and to keep untouched the highest part of ourselves, until tranquillity,
restored to our mind, should enable us to add to our former labors the rest of our studies
on Scripture. If we had returned to this task at an unseasonable time, we might have
feared that painful reflections would bring the tempest right into our soul. Moreover, the
absence of our usual secretaries prevented us from dictating the commentary. But now that
the multitude of heated writings published against us has been extinguished by God, and
our soul, accustomed to the misfortunes which come to pass in consequence of the heavenly
word, has learnt to support more peaceably the snares prepared for us--now that we have,
so to speak, found once more a calm sky, we do not wish to delay any longer in dictating
the rest, and we pray God our Master to make himself heard in the sanctuary of our soul,
so that the commentary we have begun on the Gospel of John may be completed. May God hear
our prayer that we may be able to write the whole of this discourse, and that no further
accident may interrupt and break the continuity of Scripture.

This moving passage well brings out Origens great grief, and
also his efforts to overcome it and continue his work in peace.

J. Lebreton also says, "We can compare with this passage a
fragment of a letter from Origen to his friends, quoted by St. Jerome, Adv. Rufinum
2:18 : "Is it necessary to recall the discourses of the prophets threatening and
reprimanding the shepherds and the elders, the priests and the princes of the people? You
can find them without our help in the Holy Scriptures and convince yourselves that our own
time is perhaps one of those to which these words apply: Believe not a friend, and trust
not in a prince (Micheas, vii, 5), and also this other oracle which is being
fulfilled in our own days "The leaders of my people have not known me they are
foolish and senseless children; they are ready to do evil but know not how to do
good" (Jeremias, iv, 22). such men deserve pity rather than hate, and we must
pray for them rather than curse them, for we have been created, not to curse but to
bless."

Origen left Alexandria and made his new home in Caesarea, in Palestine,
where he was gladly welcomed by the bishops. "They attached themselves to him as to a
unique master, and they entrusted him with the explanation of the holy Scriptures and with
the whole of Church teaching," Bishop Theoctistus induced Origen to found a new
school of theology there, over which he presided for almost twenty years. In this School
he taught St. Gregory the Wonder-Worker for five years.

Ambrose and the book-producing organization had accompanied him to
Caesarea, and a share in the dedication of two works was bestowed on that loyal
benefactor.

At the bishops request Origen also discussed the Scripture, at
least twice a week, on Wednesday and Fridays. The new task increased Origens
humility, for he believed that the preacher had to be first and foremost a man of prayer.
Many times when he was faced with an especially difficult passage, he would often stop and
ask his listeners to pray with him for a better understanding of the text.

His power as a teacher in Caesarea can fortunately be measured by an
account which was recorded by a grateful pupil. His school at Caesarea exercised a
magnetic attraction not only over the neighboring country but on hearers from abroad, who
came to hearken to his wisdom from all parts, as the Queen of Sheba came to Solomon.

Among the earliest of them was a young law student, by name Gregory,
afterwards surnamed the "Thaumaturgus" (Wonder-worker), owing to the
apostolic signs and wonders which he wrought in his singularly successful labors as a
missionary among his own people. His name by birth was Theodore, and was subsequently
changed to Gregory. He was born in Pontus, of a distinguished but pagan family. At the age
of fourteen, after the death of his father, he came to know Christianity and accepted it.
Gregory wanted to become a lawyer, and set out for Beirut with his brother Athenodorus, in
order to study law there. The two brothers took their sister with them as far as Caesarea,
so that she could join her husband, who had been appointed assessor to the Governor of
Syrian Palestine. Passing by Beirut on his journey, he arrived at Caesarea, only to fall
under Origens spell and find himself a captive, not of Roman law, but of Christian
Gospel. He stayed for five years under the tuition of the master, at the end of which, he
received the bishopric on the eve of returning home. Before leaving Caesarea, Gregory
addressed to his master a speech of farewell and thanks (Panegyric). The
admiration of the young disciple for his master shows how great was the latters
influence, and how much he was loved.

At the end of the first part of the Panegyric, St. Gregory
describes in moving terms the fascination that the master's language had for him when he
spoke of the Word and the mutual affection that grew up between them and him:

And thus, like some spark lighting upon our inmost soul, love was
kindled and burst into flame within us, - a love at once to the Holy Word, the most lovely
object of all, who attracts all irresistibly towards Himself by His unutterable beauty,
and to this man, His friend and advocate. And being most mightily smitten by this love, I
was persuaded to give up all those objects or pursuits which seem to us befitting, and
among others even my boasted jurisprudence, - yea, my very fatherland and relatives, both
those - who were present with me then, and those from whom I had parted. And in my
estimation there arose but one object dear and worth desire, - to wit philosophy, and that
master of philosophy, that divine man.

St. Gregory expresses the grief of farewell and weeps to leave the
almost monastic life he had led with Origen and his fellow students.

... where both by day and by night the holy laws are declared, and
hymns and songs and spiritual words are heard; where also there is perpetual sunlight;
where by day in waking vision we have access to the mysteries of God, and by night in
dreams we are still occupied with what the soul has seen and handled in the day; and
where, in short, the inspiration of divine things prevails over all continually.

Origen states that many like St. Gregory exaggerate in praising him. He
says, "We ourselves also suffer from such exaggerations. Many who love us more
than we deserve give to our discourses and to our doctrine praises of which we cannot
approve. Others slander our books and attribute to us opinions which to our knowledge we
have never held. Those who love us too much and those who hate us both stray from the rule
of truth."

Henri Crouzel says,

Following A Knauber we think that the school of Caesarea was more a
kind of missionary school, aimed at young pagans who were showing an interest in
Christianity but were not yet ready, necessarily, to ask for baptism: Origen was thus
introducing these to Christian doctrine through a course in philosophy, mainly inspired by
Middle Platonism, of which he offered them a Christian version. If his students later
asked to become Christians, they had then to receive catecheticial teaching in the strict
sense.

But the didascaleion of Caesarea is above all a school of the
inner life: all its teaching leads to spirituality. It is striking to note that what
Gregory admires most in Origen is not the polymath or the speculative sage, but the man of
God and the guide of souls. Origen seems to Gregory to have gone far on the road of
spiritual progress that leads to assimilation to God, so much so that he no longer has for
guide an ordinary angel but already perhaps the Angel of the Great Council himself,' that
is to say the Logos. He has received from God exceptional spiritual gifts: he can speak of
God, he is the 'advocate' or 'herald' of the Word and of the virtues, the
'guide' of philosophy in its moral and religious applications. He possesses to a unique
degree the gift of the exegete, analogous to that of the inspired author; he knows how to
listen to God: 'This man has received from God the greatest gift and from heaven the
better part; he is the interpreter of the words of God to men, he understands the things
of God as if God were speaking to him and he explains them to men that they may understand
them'. Among the gifts he has received from God, he has the greatest of all, 'the master
of piety, the saving Word. With him the Word comes in bare-foot, not shod with an
enigmatic phraseology. He teaches the virtues in wise and compelling terms, but above all
by his example: he puts his own lessons into practice, striving to fit himself to the
ideal they describe: he presents to his students a model of all the virtues, so that they
come to life.

God has given him the power to convince and that is how he overcame the
resistance of the two brothers. His words pierced them like 'arrows.

Origen paid several journeys during this period:

1. Bishop Firmilian of Caesarea in Cappadocia, invited him into his country 'for the
good of the Churches' and then went himself to spend some time 'with him in Judaea ... to
improve himself in divine matter'."

2. A journey to Nicomedia, Diocletian's future capital, near the Asian shore of the Sea
of Marmara, is attested by the conclusion of the long letter he wrote to Julius Africanus
in reply to the latter's objections to the authenticity and canonicity of the story of
Susanna in the Greek version of Daniel.

3. As we have seen before, Origen went to see Beryllus, bishop of
Bostra in the Hauran, capital of the Roman province of Arabia, a country to which Origen
had already been at the summons of its governor during the Alexandrian period of his life.
Eusebius attributes to Beryllus a doctrine derived from both modalism and adoptionism: the
former, to safeguard the divine unity, made of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
three modes of being of a single divine Person, while the latter thought of the Son as a
man whom God adopted. Beryllus maintained that 'our Lord and Savior had not pre-existed in
a mode of his own before his dwelling among men and that He did not possess a divinity of
his own, but only that of the Father which dwelt in Him'. Many bishops had discussions
with Beryllus at a synod held in his own Church and they summoned Origen to it; he
succeeded in bringing Beryllus round to a more orthodox opinion.

4. Another mission, likewise to Arabia, and related to the reign of Philip the Arabian,
who came from that country, was directed against the views of certain Christians known by
the name of Thnetopsychites, that is people maintaining that the soul is mortal.

5. The third mission was not unconnected, as regards the opinions debated, with the two
previous ones. The evidence for it is found in the Dialogue of Origen with Heraclides and
the bishops his colleagues on the Father, the Son and the soul, the transcript in part of
the proceedings of a synod like the former, but of which we know neither the time nor the
place. But the doctrines discussed are sufficiently akin to those in debate at the other
synods to suggest that this also was in Roman Arabia and at the same period. We will
return to this dialogue in the following chapter.

ORIGENS TEACHING AS SEEN BY A DISCIPLE

St. Gregory describes his feelings towards his teacher, Origen, as
having the warmth of the true Sun which begins to rise upon him. He was pierced with
Origen's words, as by a divine arrow. His prayers were as Gods arrows, having the
power to convert his hearers. St. Gregory states that in his zeal, Origen, "did
not aim merely at getting us round by any kind of reasoning; but his desire was, with a
benignant, affectionate and most generous mind, to save us."

The pains he took to build them up in the faith are admirably portrayed
in Gregory's Panegyric, which gives us the first detailed curriculum of Christian
higher education. But what is not so apparent from this account is the earnest prayer and
confident use of the Scriptures in evangelism which Origen employed. Something of his
priorities in this matter may be gleaned from his letter to Gregory. "Do you then, my
son, diligently apply yourself to the reading of the sacred Scriptures. Apply yourself, I
say, for we who read the things of God need much application, lest we should say or think
anything too rashly about them. And applying yourself thus to the study of the things of
God, . . . knock at its locked door, and it will be opened to you . . . And applying
yourself thus to the divine study, seek aright, and with unwavering trust in God, the
meaning of the Holy Scriptures, which so many have missed. Be not satisfied with knocking
and seeking; the prayer is of all things indispensable to the knowledge of the things of
God. For to this the Savior exhorted, and said not only 'Knock and it shall be opened to
you; and seek and you shall find' but also, 'Ask, and it shall be given unto you'.

It was through the wise, dedicated, individual evangelism of Christians
like Origen that some of the most notable converts were brought into the Christian Church.
Hand-picked fruit was the best.

In St. Gregorys eulogy, pulsating with grateful admiration, the
young man tells how he was first won by Origen and then trained by him. The master was not
merely a professor but above all an educator; he transformed the person who gave himself
up to him:

When he saw that his efforts were not fruitless, he began to dig the
soil, to turn it over, to water it, to rake it over, and to use all his art and all his
care in order to work upon us; everything that there was in the nature of thorns,
thistles, or evil weeds, and all that our minds produced like a virgin forest, he cut back
or extracted by his reprimands and orders; he corrected us after the manner of Socrates,
and subdued us by his words if he found us like wild horses, impatient of the bit rushing
off the road, and running hither and thither, until by persuasion or compulsion, curbing
us by his speech as by a bit put into our mouths he succeeded in training us. At first
this could not be done without pain and suffering for us; neither custom nor exercise had
taught us to follow reason; but nevertheless he went on forming us by his discourses and
gradually purified us (7:96).

Side by side with this moral training, an encyclopedic teaching was
given.

Thus this whole course, encyclopedic and philosophical, was but a
preparation for the study of Holy Scripture which for Origen was the most important
subject of all, constituting Theology.

He himself used to interpret the Prophets and clarified all the obscure
and puzzling passages such as occur frequently in the holy Scriptures... He clarified and
threw light upon all the enigmas he encountered, because he knew how to listen to God and
to understand him. One might say that these enigmas presented no difficulty to him, and
contained nothing that he did not understand. Of all the men of to-day, of whom I have
heard or whom I have known, there has not been one who was able as he was to contemplate
the purity of the divine oracles, to receive their light into his own soul, and to teach
them to others. This is because the universal Head, he who spoke through the Prophets
beloved by God, and who inspires all prophecy and all mystical and divine discourse,
honored him as a friend, and set him up as a master. Through others, he spoke in enigmas,
but through Origen he gave the understanding of them, and whatever he, the Master
supremely worthy of belief, had by his royal authority ordained or revealed, this he gave
to this man to expound, and to explain the oracles, so that if anyone were hard of heart
and incredulous or still desirous to learn, he was able to learn from this man and was in
a sense compelled to understand and to believe and to follow God. If he did all this, it
was in my opinion by the communication of the divine Spirit; for those who prophesy and
those who understand the prophets need the same power, and no one can understand a prophet
unless the same Spirit who has prophesied give him the understanding of his discourse.
That is the meaning of the words we read in the holy books: "He who shuts can alone
open, and none other" - the divine word opens by manifesting those enigmas which are
closed. This wonderful gift was received by this man from God, he was given by heaven the
marvelous destiny of being to men the interpreter of the words of God, understanding what
God says in the way in which God says it, and expounding it to men in a way that men can
understand. Thus, there was nothing inexplicable, hidden, or inaccessible to us; we were
able to follow every saying, barbarian or Greek, mysterious or public, divine or human; we
were able in all freedom to run through all, to examine all, and to collect together and
enjoy all the good things of the soul. Whether it came from some ancient source of the
truth or from some other name or work, we drew from it abundantly and with full freedom
wonderful and magnificent thoughts. To express the whole matter in brief, all this was for
us a veritable Paradise, an image of the great Paradise of God, in which we did not have
to work upon the soul below, nor to feed our bodies by fattening them; we had only to
develop the riches of the soul, like beautiful plants which we had planted ourselves or
which had been planted in us by the Cause of all things, in joy and abundance
(15:I74-183),

This eulogy does honor to the disciple as much as to his master. But at
the same time we cannot help noticing a certain exaggeration, whether in the praise of
Hellenic philosophy, or in the repeated praise of Origen himself as the unique master and
sole interpreter of the Scriptures. Origen doubtless was himself aware of this
exaggeration. We have a letter which he addressed to Gregory shortly after the return of
the young man to his own country; we find in it some points which appear to be discreet
corrections of the Discourse especially on the dangers which may be found in the
good things of Egypt, and the necessity of prayer to understand the Scriptures. At the end
of the letter, Origen gives this exhortation:

As for you, my son, apply yourself above all to the reading of the holy
Scriptures. "Apply yourself," I say, for we need great attention when we read
the holy books so that we may neither say nor think anything incautious concerning them.
Be attentive to the reading of the divine Scriptures, with faith and the intention of
pleasing God knock if the doors are shut, and the porter will open to you, as Jesus said:
The porter will open the door to him." Being thus attentive to the divine reading,
seek with an upright heart and a very firm faith in God, the spirit of the holy
Scriptures, so often hidden. But do not content yourself with knocking at the door and
seeking: the most necessary thing for the understanding of divine matters is prayer. The
Savior, when exhorting us, did not content himself with saying to us: "Knock and it
shall be opened unto you, seek and you shall fin; he also said: "Ask and it shall be
given unto you." Because of my fatherly affection towards you I do not fear to speak
to you thus. Whether we have done well or not, God and his Christ know, and he who has a
part in the spirit of God and the spirit of Christ. May you yourself have part therein, an
ever increasing part, so that you may not merely say: "We are becoming participators
in Christ" but also "We are becoming participators in God."

ORIGEN AS A PREACHER

Origen was dean of the Scientific School of Alexandria, at the same
time he was a preacher not in a formal way, but through his zeal of the salvation of men.
As a preacher, Origen was very humble , because he knew there was much that he did not
know and yet he was not afraid.

His spiritual lectures were attended by men and women, Christians, and
non-Christians, poor and rich people. As we have seen, even the pagan Queen, Julia Mammaea
desired to hear him and to be instructed by him. Michael Green presents Origen as an
example of a lovely preacher saying:

A lovely example of the attitude to preaching adopted by one of the
great intellectuals at the end of the second century, Origen, is found in his Commentary
on Psalm 36. One might expect that the head of the Catechetical School in Alexandria, the
man who outgunned the philosophers on their own ground, was somewhat dull in his preaching
and academic in his approach to it; in fact, the very reverse was the case.

In this commentary on Psalm 36 Origen is talking of Christianpreachers
under the metaphor of arrows of God. "All in whom Christ speaks, that is to say every
upright man and preacher who speaks the word of God to bring men to salvationand not
merely the apostles and prophetscan be called an arrow of God. But, what is rather
sad," he continues, "I see very few arrows of God. There are few who so speak
that they inflame the heart of the hearer, drag him away from his sin, and convert him to
repentance. Few so speak that the heart of their hearers is deeply convicted and his eyes
weep for contrition. There are few who unveil the light of the future hope, the wonder of
heaven and the glory of God's kingdom to such effect that by their earnest preaching they
succeed in persuading men to despise the visible and seek the invisible, to spurn the
temporal and seek the eternal. There are all too few preachers of this caliber." He
fears that professional jealousy and rivalry often render, what few good preachers there
are, useless in reaching those they try to win. And continuing in a very humble and
sensitive vein Origen shares with the reader his dread that he should himself ever turn
into the devil's arrow by causing anyone to stumble through what he did or said.
"Sometimes we think we are confuting someone, and we speak ill-advisedly, and become
aggressive and argumentative as we endeavor to win our case no matter what expressions we
use. Then the devil takes our mouth and uses it like a bow from which he can shoot his
arrows.

Green also says,

But it seems to have been Clement and Origen who were most sensitive
about the need of those without Christ, and adept at pleading with them. We have already
sampled the caliber of Origen's preaching, his inner concern to be an arrow in the Lord's
hand, and his comments on Romans 9:1 where he asks the reader, "Do you have sorrow
and grief for the lost ? Do you care enough to be separated from Christ for them ?"
His predecessor in the Catechetical School at Alexandria, Clement, had equal warmth, as
his Protrepricus makes clear. This is no mere Apology. It is a missionary tract,
full of love and concern for those whom he is seeking to win. It may not be amiss to close
this chapter with some excerpts from this treatise, as a reminder that the warmth of
Christian love for the unevangelized and genuine concern for their well being did not end
with the apostolic age.

"Do you not fear, and hasten to learn of himthat is, hasten
to salvationdreading wrath, loving grace, eagerly striving after the hope set before
us, that you may shun the judgment threatened ? Come, come, O my young people! For if you
become not again as little children, and be born again, as says the Scripture, you shall
not receive the truly existent Father, nor shall you enter the kingdom of heaven. For in
what way is a stranger permitted to enter ? Well, I take it, when he is enrolled and made
a citizen, and receives one to stand to him in the relation of Father: then he will be
occupied with the Fathers concerns, then he shall be deemed worthy to be made his
heir, then he will share the kingdom of the Father with his own dear Son."

Origens homilies give us a good picture of himself as a preacher,
and of a third century preacher. He has no specific word for "Preacher;" he
calls him simply didaskalos, or "teacher;" that is, the preacher was one
sort of educator. When Origen preached, he stood before the congregation and had the book
of the Scripture open before him; it was a corrected version of the Septuagint.

Origen did not preach regularly until he had been ordained a presbyter.

When Origen was preaching in Caesarea, the bishop was not present. But
when he spoke of 1 Samuel as a guest preacher in Jerusalem, the bishop attended. In
his homily on 1 Samuel 1-2, Origen paid the bishop a compliment: "Do not expect to
find in us what you have in Pope Alexander, for we acknowledge that he surpasses us all in
gracious gentleness. And I am not the only one to commend this graciousness; all of you,
who have enjoyed it , know and appreciate it.

Origen readily admitted that learning alone did not make a good
preacher. Again and again he asks his congregation to pray for him, and especially for his
enlightenment, that he might understand the scriptures and explain them correctly. In one
homily he says to his hearers: "If the Lord should see fit to illuminate us by
your prayers, we will attempt to make known a few things which pertain to the edification
of the church" In another passage, he urges the congregation to pray for insight
during each reading of the Scriptures:

We should pray the Father of the word during each individual reading
"when Moses is read," that he might fulfill even in us that which is written in
the Psalms: "Open my eyes and I will consider the wondrous things of your Law (Ps..
118:18)." For unless he himself opens our eyes, how shall we be able to see these
great mysteries which are fashioned in the patriarchs, which are pictured now in terms of
wells, now in marriages, now in births, now even in barrenness?

Elsewhere he says: "Lord Jesus, come again; explain these words
to me and to those who have come to seek spiritual food."

He was appalled by the task confronting him, for what he had to do was
not just to state the truth but to state it in such a way that his hearers could grasp it.
"I often think of the maxim: "It is dangerous to talk about God, even if what
you say about him is true." The man who wrote that must, I am sure, have been a
shrewd and dependable character. There is danger, you see, not only in saying what is
untrue about God but even in telling the truth about him if you do it at the wrong time."

Origen as a preacher, gains men through love, or say a close
friendship. For example St. Gregory Thaumaturgus describes in a very moving way the
affection between himself and his master, comparing it with that of Saul's son, Jonathan,
for David. "And so he goaded us on by his friendship, by the irresistible, sharp,
penetrating goad of his affability and good purposes, all the good will that was apparent
in his own words, when he was present with us and talked to us." The friendship which
unites the pupil to his master, his "true father," is the central idea of the
moving peroration in which St. Gregory laments, with the support of many biblical
references, all that he is about to leave: he compares himself to Adam driven out of
Paradise, to the prodigal son reduced to eating the fodder of the swine, to the Hebrew
captives refusing to sing in a strange land, to the robbed Jew of the parable of the Good
Samaritan. And after asking his master to pray that an angel may watch over him during his
journey back to his distant land, he ends his address as follows: "Ask him urgently
to let us return and to bring us back to you. That alone, that more than anything else,
will be our consolation." The rhetoric in which this peroration is couched should in
no way cast doubt on the youthful friendship and admiration that inspired it.

Origen, like other Alexandrian Fathers, such as Athenagoras, Pantaenus
and Clement mixed even their apologetic writings with teaching and evangelism. They were
missionaries, preachers, evangelists, and in many instances, martyrs.

Origen as a sincere preacher asks every believer to have the
responsibility to be a representative of His Master, saying, "There was no need
for many bodies to be in several places and to have many spirits like Jesus, so that the
whole world of men might be enlightened by the Word of God. For the one Word was enough,
who rose up as a 'sun of righteousness' to send forth from Judaea his rays which reach the
souls of those who are willing to accept him." He continues by pointing out that many
have, in imitation of Christ, carried out the message from Judaea into the rest of the
world. "If anyone should want to see many bodies filled with a divine spirit,
ministering to the salvation of men everywhere after the pattern of the one Christ, let
him realize that those who in many places teach the doctrine of Jesus rightly and live an
upright life, are themselves also called christs by the divine Scriptures in the words,
'Touch not My christs, and do My prophets no harm."

Green says," There is another passage in Origen which sheds light
on how seriously he took the responsibility of being the visible representative of his
Master. In his Commentary on Romans 9:1 he considers Paul's professed willingness
to be cut off from Christ if that would benefit his Jewish brethren and bring them to
faith. Origen asks the reader if he has sorrow and grief for the lost, like that.
Does he care so much that he would be willing to be separated from Christ for their sake ?
Of course that could not happen. Nothing will be able to separate the Christian from the
love of Christ, as Paul has made clear at the end of the previous chapter. Nor would it be
possible to save others if one were about to perish oneself. But even though it could not
happen, Origen persists in his challenging inquiry, would the reader be willing for such a
fate in order to rescue others ? "Have you learned the lesson of dying to live
from your Lord and Master ? Have you learned from him who though by nature immortal and
inseparable from the Father nevertheless died and descended into Hades ? In the same way
Paul imitated his Master, and was willing to be accursed from Christ for his brethren's
sake, although nothing could separate him from the love of Christ ! Is it so wonderful
that the Apostle should be willing to be accursed for his brethrens sake, when he
knew that the one who was in the form of God emptied himself of that form, and took on
himself the form of the Servant and was made a curse for us ? Is it so wonderful if, when
the Lord was made a curse for slaves, the slave should be willing to be a curse for his
brethren ?"

Finally, Origen believes that Christ is speaking through him.

Till now Joshua writes the Torah by our words, in the hearts those
who receive the word in straight faith will all their spirits, with sound ear, sound
heart, and unevil thought.

ORIGENS ATTITUDE TOWARD HIS ADMIRER

All the people were admired of him (St. John the Baptist) and
loved him. Surely John was a strange man, worthy of the strong admiration of all men, for
his life was totally different than theirs... But this surpassed the limits of reasonable
love, for they asked if he was Christ.

St. Paul was afraid of this unsuitable and spiritual love, as he speaks
of him self: " But I forbear, lest anyone should think of me above what he sees me to
be or bears from me. And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the
revelations" (2 Cor. 12:6,7. )

I myself suffer from this exaggeration in our church, for the majority
love me more that I deserve, and praise my speech and teaching ... while others criticize
our homilies and attribute to me some ideas which are not mine... These who exaggerate in
loving us and those who hate us both do not preserve the law of truth. Some lie in their
exaggerated love as others in their hatred.

Therefore we have to put limits to our love and do not leave it in
freedom to carry us here and there. . . . It is written in the book of Ecclesiastes,
"Do not be overly righteous, nor be overly wise, why should you destroy
yourself" (Eccles. 7:16).

Origen, who was interested in the salvation of souls, did not care of
his own glory. Truly he was very kind and gentle to attract men to their Savior, but
sometimes he was very firm for their advantage, regardless their opinion on him. R. Cadiou
says,

The great Alexandrian, whose pupils were always quick to praise his
gentle and penetrating methods of teaching, allowed himself certain elements of rudeness
as a preacher. When he compared his own ideals of Christian perfection with the routine
practice of the faithful or with the cupidity and laziness of certain members of the
clergy, he was as unable to control his impatience as any other such intellectual
Christian might be under the same circumstances. A certain sharpness began to appear in
his style of preaching, and he himself acknowledged it in one of his homilies given at
Jerusalem. "Do not expect," he says, "to hear from me the
gracious words that you hear from your Bishop Alexander. I agree with you that he is
outstanding in the charm which marks his gentleness, and I know you have been accustomed
to enjoy those delightful exhortations that pour forth from his fatherly heart, vivified
as it is with the spirit of charity. But in my garden the herbs are of a sharper taste,
and you will find them salutary remedies when you come here to pray."

MAXIMINS PERSECUTION

During the persecution initiated by Maximin, Origen took refuge in
Cappadocian Caesarea. His old friends Ambrosius (Ambrose) and Protoktetuis, a priest of
Caesarea, were seized and thrown into prison. He wrote and dedicated to them his treatise,
"Exhortation to Martyrdom," in which he regarded martyrdom as one of the
proofs of the truth of Christianity, and a continuation of the work of redemption.

Ambrose and Protoktetius were set at liberty and Origen returned to
Caesarea in Palestine.

Traveling to Athens through Bithynia, he spent several days at
Nicomedia. there he received a letter from Julius Africanus, who asked him about the story
of Susanna as an authentic portion of the Book of Daniel. Origen replied in a lengthy
letter form Necomedia.

Under the reign of Decius (249 - 251), persecution rose again and
Origen was arrested. His body was tortured, he was tormented with a heavy iron collar and
kept in the innermost den in the prison. For several days his feet were tied together to a
rock; and he was threatened with being burned at the stake.

Eusebius describes his suffering in the following terms:

The number and greatness of Origens sufferings during the
persecution, the nature of his death..., the nature and the number of bonds which the man
endured for the word of Christ, punishments as he lay in iron and in the recesses of his
dungeon; and how, when for many days his feet were stretched four spaces in that
instrument of torture, the stocks, he bore with a stout heart threats of fire and
everything else that was inflicted by his enemies.

Origen bore all these sufferings bravely. He did not die of this
persecution, but he died shortly afterwards and perhaps due to it.

Photius, giving an account of Pamphilus Apology for Origen, says
there were two traditions about Origen's death. The first said 'he ended his life in an
illustrious martyrdom at Caesarea itself at the time when Decius was breathing nothing but
cruelty against the Christians': that would imply his death during the persecution. The
second tradition is the one attested by Eusebius: "He lived until the time of Gallus
and Volusian," which Eusebius reports at the beginning of Book 7; 'he died and was
buried at Tyre in his sixty-ninth year'. And Photius adds: 'This version is the true one,
at least if the letters which we have, written after Decius persecution, are not
forgeries.'

Justinian made a charge that Origen "in the very time of his
martyrdom denied Christ and paid his worship to the many gods of the Greeks."

Before Origen died, St. Dionysius of Alexandria, who had succeeded
Heraclas as Pope of Alexandria, sent him a letter On Martyrdom, to lead a renewal
of Origens old relation with the Alexandrian Church. This letter was probably an Exhortation
to Martyrdom addressed to his former master when the latter was in prison. This
assurance of sympathy, coming from the Church of his birth, from which he had been
banished eighteen years, must have been moving to receive.

THE DATE OF HIS DEATH

Henri Crouzel states that, according to Eusebius narrative the
date of his death was in the time of Gallus, the successor of Decius, Origen, "having
completed seventy years, less one," that is being sixty-nine: the date of his death
would then be 254-255. The difficulty about this is that Gallus and his son Volusian were
overthrown in May 253 and that they did not reign two years. So we must suppose, either
that Origen died under their successor Valerian, or that he did not live for quite
sixty-nine years. Given the precision of this last figure. Crouzel gives more weight to
the dates 254-255 than he does the mention of Gallus reign.

C. Bigg says, "He was buried in Tyre, where for centuries his
tomb, in the wall behind the high altar, formed the chief ornament of the magnificent
cathedral of the Holy Sepulcher. Tyre was wasted by the Saracens, but even to this day, it
is said, the poor fishermen, whose hovels occupy the site of that city of palaces, point
to a shattered vault beneath which lie the bones of "Oriunus."